Pastor Steven, Elijah, Graham, and Abbey Furtick have a little jam session band they call the Pajama Bottom Band. This year for Easter they decided to make a video welcoming our first time guests. Enjoy!

I know Halloween isn’t for everyone. My family did not celebrate it growing up. For us Halloween is about family and community and about sharing. Whether you go to a trunk or treat or a trick or treat or a fall festival, it is a great time to be together and have fun.

When I put these pictures together, I suddenly felt very old and grown up and also very thankful for the family I have been blessed with. The days are long but the years are short!

Today our baby is 9 years old! He has turned out to be such a fun young man. He loves to play piano, baseball, and to read (currently on book 5 of Harry Potter!). He loves a challenge and a good argument. He loves to listen to his dad preach. He is a born leader and excels in school. We are so proud of him!

We had another amazing baseball season with our boys. I never could have imagined how much I would love watching my children play sports!

Our boys played baseball every night last week ending at the coach pitch championship game. They were ahead 7-2 going into the bottom of the 6th inning (they only play 6 innings) only for the other team to come back and tie the game. At the top of the 7th they did not score any runs. In the bottom of the 7th they held them (not to mention Graham caught a tipped foul for the 3rd out). Then our boys came out swinging and scored 7 runs (Elijah was one of them!). The other team made a great effort with 4 runs but they couldn’t come back.

The Lake Monsters won! It was one of the best sporting events I have ever attended.

Last week my husband spoke at Liberty University’s convocation. He brought Elijah with him on the trip. Elijah had been working on memorizing a little something at school. I was so proud. Elijah definitely does not have a glossophobia. It’s in the genes.

The day is finally here!!! This book has been in the makings for so long. I am so proud of my husband for this. Having watched the process of writing a book 3 times now, I can tell you that it doesn’t get any easier the 3rd time around. There was a lot of resistance against this book and I know that is because the message is so great.

As I said yesterday, I read the first chapter with tears in my eyes because it was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment and I guarantee it will be the same for you. In this book my husband teaches us how to hear God above the voices of insecurity, fear, condemnation and discouragement.

And today, to kick off the release of this book, we are doing a live radio show from 10am-6pm!! Pastor Steven will be joined with Lysa TerKuerst as they interview guests such as Christine Caine, Pastor Craig Groeschel, Louie Giglio, and so many others. It is going to be a great day.

Last night our boys team won the tournament for their coach pitch league this fall. We had so much fun. There is nothing like watching your child perform. Whether it is in a sport or a performance of some type, it is so much fun.

It was a great night for baseball all around (yeah Boston!).

I read a blog (see here for full article) this week about how parents can best encourage their children in sports. They surveyed college athletes and asked them what their parents said that made you feel great. Their response was…

I love watching you play.

I said this so many times to my boys last night. I don’t know what they will remember about their childhood when they grow up. I don’t know if they will ever know how much work it is to have your children play an organized sport. But I hope and pray they will remember how much we enjoyed watching them play. And how proud we always are of them.

Teaching kids kids to be generous is not easy. It is against human nature to share. Adults don’t like to share either, we just learn how to hide it better.

My husband and I teach our kids tithing like it isn’t an option. It is just a matter of fact. You give back to God 10% of everything He gives you. But to get our kids to go beyond tithing and into generosity is not an easy task. Back this past winter, my sister’s oldest two kids had a joint birthday party and instead of receiving gifts, they collected items for kids in Africa. I thought this was a great idea to rip off.

So when Elijah’s birthday rolled around this July, I asked him if he would like to collect something at his birthday party instead of gifts. He immediately said no. I let it go and tried again a few days later. This time I told him that he would still be getting gifts. His dad and I as well as his grandparents, cousins, etc… would still give him gifts, just not the kids invited to his party.

He agreed and we selected Beds 4 Kids as his charity. We thought it would be cool to have a huge pile of bedding to load up after his party.

I was so proud of my boys. Once they made the decision, they never complained. And they were still blessed with gifts and money from those closest to them.

I am not a perfect parent. I do not seize every teachable moment and share bible verses with my kids daily. And I don’t know that we will make this a birthday tradition. (I hope we do but I want it to be their choice). But I hope their generosity will inspire their friends to be generous (as their cousins did for my boys), and that maybe my kid’s generation will grow up to generous givers.

8 years ago today this boy changed my name to mom. He is a lover of Dragonvale (tomorrow we find out if he successfully bred a double rainbow dragon!), a champion Bey Blade fighter, and extremely lucky when playing cards. I am so glad to have boys who could introduce me to a whole new world that I barely even knew existed.